Mommy Adrenaline

Mommy adrenaline. Have you ever experienced it? It's like a surge of power or super speed that you get in critical situations. If you google "mommy adrenaline", one of the first things that comes up is a story about a mom that lifted a car off her child. Whaaat? Told you, super strength. 

This is what moms look like during those moments.

Well I've had two experiences with "mommy adrenaline" recently.

Experience Number One:

A little over a week ago Hailey started choking on a piece of pizza. It wasn't any different than pizza she's had before, but for some reason she choked. I noticed a weird noise coming from her, so I looked over and saw her struggling to even breathe! BOOM! Mommy adrenaline activated. Within seconds I pulled the high chair tray off, put her in position, and did the baby Heimlich. By the time Travis noticed what was happening (he was still dishing up his plate), I already had it taken care of. My response time was accelerated and I reacted with super speed.

Such a scary situation. I'm grateful I took the CPR class a year ago, so my brain immediately knew what to do. 

Okay, cool story. Now let's talk about the opposite end of the stick. A moment where the mommy adrenaline didn't kick in.

Experience Number Two:

Hailey and I were playing at the park a couple weeks back with some kids Travis and I were babysitting. The playground was bigger than other ones we've been to. 

 But Hailey has been doing really good at playgrounds. Usually Travis or I go up with her and send her down a slide to the other parent. In this instance Travis was busy with some other kids. So I figured Hailey could handle going up the stairs and turn the corner to go down the slide. And I would be right there guiding her through the rails.

So up Hailey went.

I stuck my hands through the bars to spot her as she went up. She was going up really well and I thought to myself, "I knew she could handle this". Then she got to the top. And out of my reach. 

Hailey looked down at me, as if realizing she was free from my grasp, and then took off to the opposite side of the playground. I immediately yelped, realizing she was out of my control. There were open areas where she could fall off so I tried getting her attention back to the slide by calling out frantically. Nope. I knew that if I went up the stairs she would think I was chasing her and run from me. Danger. So I ran over to the other side of the playground to block her from falling off and to see if I could grab her.

Right when Hailey saw me she belly laughed thinking we were playing a game. She was out of my reach, as the playground ledge came up to my neck. She took off again across the playground toward the other open spot in the fence.

My immediate reaction was to jump up onto the playground and go after her. I felt like that was the quickest way to get to her. THIS IS IT. This is the moment my mommy adrenaline kicks in and I jump higher than I ever have before. So I tried to jump onto the playground. I jumped without success, only getting my chest onto the playground. There was nothing for me to grab onto so I fell back off. I thought for sure my mommy adrenaline would kick in. This is one of those moments where my child is in danger and I'm supposed to develop super powers. With that in mind, I jumped again.

Thud. I landed on my chest again. My Kobe Bryant hops I was hoping for never came. I felt all the other parents' eyes on me as I humbly admitted defeat. I quickly ran over and went up the stairs to fetch my wandering child. Luckily she didn't run from me that time. I think she was curious as to why I was calling her name so urgently. Or maybe she felt bad because I embarrassed myself. For whatever reason, she stopped running and I was able to grab her. I looked around and noticed my earlier suspicion was true. Every single parent at the park had their eyes on me. I wanted to wave and say, "Don't worry, first time mom here. We're still working out the kinks". But instead, I didn't say anything and we went down the slide. Hailey squealed with happiness and joy, and I tried to catch my breath and slow my rapidly beating heart. 

So there you have it. Sometimes the mommy adrenaline kicks in, and sometimes you look like a fool expecting it to. The end.

Mother's Day 2014

I'm really bad when it comes to my birthday, Valentine's Day, and now Mother's Day. I take the liberty of reminding Travis a month in advance, and then almost every day as the special day gets closer. Hey, I don't want him to forget! 

But he never forgets and he always spoils me. Mother's Day was no exception. I'm a believer in keeping things simple, but I think my constant nagging makes Travis feel pressured to make it nice. Oops. ;)

Hailey woke up at 6:30, so I got up because Travis was sleeping like a rock next to me and I felt bad waking him and using the Mother's Day excuse. So I made her breakfast and started the dishes that I forgot to do the night before. Apparently he wasn't sleeping as soundly as I thought. Within minutes of me starting the dishes, Travis groggily comes downstairs and says, "Do you know what day it is?!" It didn't take much convincing for me to hand the task over to him. So lovely.

So Travis got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I'm a sucker for flowers. 

He also got me a Pandora bead with Hailey's birthstone for my Pandora bracelet. Yipeee!

I saw this idea a while ago, where you have a notebook specifically for Mother's Day. And every year your husband and kids write you notes in there instead of getting a card. I shared that idea with Travis a while back and I guess he liked the idea! I was so happy and surprised to get the cute journal. He wrote me a note and traced Hailey's hand. And it was Hailey's best coloring job ever!

Travis also attempted to make my favorite cookies- no bakes! It's the thought that counts, right? He's so sweet.

 He made dinner. And it was sooooo delicious! Roast and mashed potatoes, garlic rolls, and asparagus. Mmmmmmm. 

 Travis really goes all out. I'm so spoiled. Honestly he could have stopped after doing the dishes that morning and I would have been perfectly happy. Don't tell him that though! ;) I love my little family. Every day feels like Mother's Day because I'm so grateful to be a mother to Hailey. She is such a precious and special girl. 

Staycation- the Big Finale

Here's the last post about our staycation. We had such a great time spending the last couple weeks doing the most things we could on a low budget. It was wonderful spending so much time together. 

On WEDNESDAY, May 7th, we went to Deanna Rose again. We didn't do the whole thing last time, so we were there to see the rest. It's a pretty big place!

THURSDAY, we went to Legend's Outlet Mall and did some shopping. Then we finally tried out a burger place called Burgers in Paradise. It was pretty yummy! And it was so beachy inside. It made me feel like Travis and I were back in the Bahamas on our honeymoon. And they were GOOD burgers.

Hailey got her own kids meal this time because we didn't wanna share. It came with two itty bitty cheeseburgers. So cute! 

 See one of Hailey's itty bitty burgers next to my beast of a burger?

 

 Hailey's meal had a frisbee as the plate. Hailey was pretty excited we got to keep it.

On FRIDAY, we went to Antioch Park and had a picnic for lunch. The weather was amazing!

 

 Hailey was obsessed with gathering sticks.  I was pretty impressed with how many she managed to fit in one hand.

 Antioch Park has a cute little town for the kids the play in.

 

 And then of course we hit up the playground.

SATURDAY was a relaxing day. We had a bbq with some friends, which was fun. No pictures though. I'm sure you're relieved. ;)

MONDAY we finally made it out to visit some church sites. We went to Independence and visited the Visitor's Center and the Church of Christ's Temple.

 

So that's that. Our staycation was a success! We managed to do something memorable and new almost every day.

If you missed the other posts about our staycation, visit:
Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.